Do you obsess over your Klout score as much as you do your PPM numbers? It?s highly doubtful you do, and I?d be worried if you did. But for many in the socially-savvy world, this number claiming to represent how much influence you have, how much of a rock star you are in your social circles, has become quite the game, if not an all-out obsession.If you?re on a mission to figure out just how a Klout score is calculated, good luck. That?s an ongoing head-scratcher within the social marketing industry and frankly, it?s been one reason this score is taken by many with a far above-average grain of salt. The conundrum is, if you don?t know what this score is based on, how can you take action steps that will get your Klout number up?
The best thing we know how to do is to a) focus on quality of fans and followers vs. quantity. Inactive, spamming or non-engaged fans are going to hurt you, and can be weeded out with a variety of tools such as contaxio and TwerpScan. b) We also know that if your tweets are retweeted and your posts are shared, your score goes up. As always, good content is the baseline ingredient for that. So there?s the ?magic? formula, get a lot of followers who are genuinely into you, and give them content that?s good enough to share.
All well and good, but what does a Klout score really mean? According to a new report by Brian Solis of The Altimeter Group, not that much. He says Klout and other tools like it, such as PeerIndex, don?t measure influence. They only measure the capacity to influence. Solis defines digital influence as ?causing effect, changing behavior, and driving measurable outcomes.? He says these scoring tools don?t take into account how complex influence is or the nature of relationships within social networks.
PeerIndex responded to the study saying that?s just a matter of semantics, essentially asserting the capacity to influence IS influence. Solis says there are 3 pillars of influence, reach, resonance and relevance that determine how a brand or person can affect their social network. He doesn?t believe Klout scores address the subtleties of these three things. The danger is that brands will go running down the rabbit hole chasing a Klout score, while at the same time missing the human relationship elements that actually drive one person to influence another person to take specific action?such as listen to your radio station.
So what are your takeaways? Don?t worry about Klout or PeerIndex scores. BUT?do worry about the things that make them go up or down. The quality of a social network fan or follower is more important than the quantity. This goes against our radio mindset in which a warm body is a warm body, and that?s all we need. Social is not passive entertainment like radio listening, and your fans should be actively engaged with you. If none of their friends ever see them interacting with or mentioning your station, they are of little value. And, in order to get your fans to interact with and mention your station, they have to be getting really, really good content from you. They?re not going to mention you out of charity.
When you?ve earned and built a virtual army of deeply devoted fans ready to leap into action whenever you put out the call, that?s when you?ll have influence.
Mike Stiles is a brand content specialist with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files & follow him @mikestiles
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